Famous Chinese Folklore Professor

*All conversations published have gained the consent of speakers

Zuoming Zhou, a well-known and pioneering Chinese professor who used to teach folklore and advise Ph.D. students at Shandong University, agreed to chat with me about his experiences.

        I visited him at his house; he had a surprisingly clear voice for an older man. He sounded like someone holding an academic podcast. "How long have you been in folklore?" I started off with the most common question.

        "Fifty years. It's been very long since I began my work in this field; I was a history major in university and found that the two fields share a lot of similar research techniques. History uses primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, as does folklore. Yet, with the latter, I can engage more with the resources around me rather than studying the past alone. This is something I preferred, so I turned to folklore."

        "That's fascinating. How do you study that?"

        "The main areas of my study are architecture, cuisine, and folk stories. The houses people build and the food they eat would be very different based on temperature and geographical location. Take the Dai tribe's houses, for example: because of the year-round moderate temperature, many bamboo grow in the area, so instead of wood, they use bamboo for housing purposes. Their houses are quite tall because the bamboos support a story for living, while the ground level is completely empty other than this supporting structure. This space is needed for residents to keep their animals at night. There are many instances like this one, and these nuances make work in folk culture fascinating to me." 

        "The Dai tribe is very cool! I know they're Buddhist, so I wonder if the preference for bamboo also has anything to do with the symbolism of enlightenment. What are the main tribes you've studied? What have you found?"

         "The bulk of my work has been on ethnic minority tribes in Guangxi. One interesting phenomenon I've noticed is that their cultural assimilation to the majority ethnicity, the Han tribe, which both you and I belong to, correlates to their level of economic development. Take the Zhuang ethnic group, for example; they're the most prominent here in Guangxi and accepted Han culture quicker than other groups. As a result, when I was doing ethnographic research with them, it was almost impossible to tell some Zhuang people from the Han—so much of their culture had been replaced. But, they do a lot better economically than some tribes who still remain in the deep mountains. Some would say this is a good phenomenon, and they're adjusting to modern society, but I'm afraid I have to disagree. I think more about how one can go and save their customs from disappearing."

        "It's very heartwarming to hear that from a scholar's perspective. I completely agree with you, and my own work has also focused on preserving cultural heritages. Very interesting! Logically, I knew that this phenomenon existed because when cultures clash, it is impossible for them not to merge or for the stronger one not to dominate the less prominent one. Would you characterize this as a conflict between ethnic groups?"

        "No, definitely not," Professor Zhou shook his head, "compared to the racial conflicts between American or European white people and other races, such as black people, whom they have enslaved, this is a process that's way less violent. The Zhuang accepted Han values, and neighboring people of Han ethnicity accepted some Zhuang values, too. It was more of a friendly exchange, but traditional customs would inevitably be washed out after generations of exchange."

        "What do you think is the best way to stop this phenomenon of losing customs yet keep the friendly exchange going?" I was eager to hear his answer.

        "I'm currently set on promoting ethnic pride. This is the best solution as it grounds the youths of each tribe in their own culture. Being a scholar has its limits—I can't simultaneously immerse myself in all the fifty-five minority tribes China has! Understanding every cultural nuance in a tribe when you weren't born in it takes tens of years. And not to mention, even after that, promotion may not be successful with the ever-changing youth culture. But there's one thing I realized: everyone with a beautiful cultural legacy is proud of that to some extent, and all of our ethnic tribes do. The trick, then, would just be to get the youths to realize how great their ethnic traditions are. As members of less-common ethnicities, they have so much that others don't to bring to the table of social exchange." Professor Zhou smiled, his eyes crinkling, "It would also be a healthy dose of self-confidence to these children. It's hard when you're not the majority ethnicity, and sometimes, all they want is to fit in."